Alumni Spotlights

Wei He, Butler School of Music alumnus, was named founding artistic director and dean of The Juilliard School’s new Tianjin, China campus. He is a longtime professor at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and artistic director of the annual San Francisco-Shanghai International Chamber Music Festival and will relocate to China later this year.

Gloria Kim (B.M. 2004; M.M., Piano Performance, 2006) joins artistic team in the East Coast for the premiere of the new chamber opera, Middlemarch in Spring at Charlottesville Opera. Photo by Dmitrii Mokrenko.

Artina McCain (D.M.A. 2011) and Martin McCain (M.M. 2006, D.M.A. 2008) were chosen to perform in the Austin Chamber Music Center’s Black Composers Concert to celebrate Black History Month. The concert was held Feb. 11.

James O. Welsch (D.M.A., Musical Arts Conducting, 2016), music director for the El Paso Symphony Youth Orchestra, served as conductor of The Bridge, a binational performance between the El Paso orchestra and the Esperanza Azteca Symphony Orchestra of Ciudad Juarez held Jan. 28-29 in both cities. The two cities sit alongside each other on the Texas-Mexico border, and the concert was a showing of unity.

Wren & Shark, the nonprofit record label of Brian Cassidy (B.M., Music Studies, 2002; M.M., Music Education, 2004), released a compilation album on Jan. 20, and 100 percent of the proceeds will go to the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Staff Sgt. Zachary Gauvain (B.M., Music Performance, 2009) performed in the 58th U.S. Presidential Inauguration on Jan. 20, 2017, as part of “The President’s Own” U.S. Marine Corps Band. 

Pianist Hyeyoung Song (D.M.A, Music, 2006) gave a sold-out concert Dec. 28, 2016, at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Presented by Weatherford College, this concert served as a finale to her tour, which included stops in Europe and in her native South Korea. Since 2007, Song has been serving as Artist in Residence at Weatherford College, Texas.

In July and October 2016, Garrett Keast (B.M., Music Studies, 1995) led enthusiastically received performances of Carmen at Opera San Antonio and La Bohème at the Aspen Music Festival. His season continues with performances with the Danish National Opera, Tonkünstler Orchestra, Göttinger Symphony Orchestra, Brandenburg Symphony Orchestra, the Hamburg Ballet and the debut concerts of the NDR Jugendsinfonieorchester in Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie. 

Cassie Shankman (B.A., Composition, 2013) will participate in a panel discussion at SXSW 2017 with her colleagues about Austin's Center for Music Therapy’s “Movement Tracks Project.” She’s worked for more than a year as the project’s lead composer.

On his second Fulbright Senior Specialist award in jazz, Hank Hehmsoth (B.M. 1975; M.M., Applied Music/Voice/Piano, 1976) will conduct master classes of contemporary American jazz in performance and theory at the Projazz Professional Institute in Santiago, Chile. He also will perform citywide jazz festival concerts with Chilean musicians. Joining him for a week are Russell Haight (M.M., Music, 2007; D.M.A., Music Education, 2009) and Utah Hamrick (D.M.A., Music, 2006), both colleagues of Hehmsoth at Texas State University. Photo by GR Hook.